Another comfortable win in this EAFF East Asian Cup Semi Final preliminary competition saw North Korea retain the UFWC title today. Hosts Hong Kong were defeated 4-0 as the Chollima finished the competition unbeaten. However, in an unexpected twist, North Korea failed to qualify for the EAFF Finals due to an extraordinary feat of goal scoring by rivals Australia.

The Chollima were 3-0 up at half-time at the Hong Kong Stadium. Both Pak Nam Chols scored (the defender and the midfielder), and Ryang Yong-Gi scored the third. In the second half, the midfielder Pak Song-Chol made the score 4-0.

This result means North Korea have won three and drawn one of their four EAFF semi final matches, scoring a massive 16 goals. However, that goal scoring feat was surpassed by a resurgent Australia, who topped the competition’s group ahead of the Chollima. The young Socceroos side laboured in a 1-0 win over Hong Kong, then drew 1-1 with North Korea, before finally finding form to beat Guam 9-0 and Chinese Taipei 8-0. Australia scored 19 goals in their four matches and finished above North Korea at the top of the table. In doing so, the Socceroos claimed the only available qualifying place for the 2013 EAFF Finals.

Most importantly for UFWC followers, however, North Korea remain Unofficial Football World Champions. The Chollima currently have no fixtures lined up, so we must wait to see what 2013 has in store.

Over the next few days we’ll take a look back over the Chollima’s 13-month reign as UFWC champions and take a closer look at where the title could go next. Watch this space and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

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3 thoughts on “Hong Kong 0-4 North Korea”

So now they’re out of this tournament where they would have played very interesting and likely entertaining matches with Japan, South Korea, and China. They’re also out of 2014 World Cup Qualifying, and they didn’t enter the 2014 Challenge Cup. They already locked their spot in the 2015 Asian Cup so they don’t have to play in qualifying so until then it looks like all of North Korea’s defenses will be friendly matches. This has the potential to be a very long reign

North Korea don’t play that many friendlies, as far as I can make out they only played one, against Indonesia in 2012. North Korea won 2-0. With no competitive matches until early 2015 I presume they will play a few friendlies, but against what opposition? The chances of the UWFC being brought to the 2014 World Cup do not look strong.

They played two, against Indonesia and Kuwait. However, in 2011 they played 5 friendlies (Kuwait, China, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain), and in 2010 they played 12, against some pretty nice opposition as well (Greece, Mexico, Nigeria etc), though their participance in the FIFA World Cup probably had something to do with that.